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Del Toro Reveals More Kaiju, <i>Pacific Rim</i> Artistic Inspiration

There's not much Guillermo del Toro can't do. In addition to finishing up his blockbuster sci-fi film Pacific Rim, he's also working on various TV shows, producing scores of films and even writing a piece for Empire. The magazine gave its website readers a sample of what they can expect from the issue that goes on sale Thursday by way of two images from the upcoming movie and a few excerpts.

"There was something weird about me from the beginning," del Toro wrote. "I don't know exactly when I started loving monsters so much, but it was definitely early. When I was 4 or 5 years old, I would ask my mother, 'Can I sleep in the coffin tonight?' and I would lie down in a drawer or I would sleep in a toy box. There's even a recording of me, aged three or four, asking for a mandrake root, for Christmas, to use in magic rituals."

"In creating Pacific Rim, I wanted the fights to have structure, like the wrestling matches of my childhood, so each fight brings a very different kind of aesthetic and a different dynamic," del Toro said. "The first fight is very operatic, theatrical: Wagnerian. It happens in the middle of an iceberg-strewn sea, in the middle of a storm, with huge waves crashing on the Jaeger and Kaiju. We worked really hard at making water a character in this movie, frequently referring to Hokusai or the Fuji wave, and trying to make the water enhanced and add to the drama. This fight tries to quote the majesty of a painting by Goya called The Colossus."